Sunderland member, Marge Wilkinson, in championing the Red Box Project on behalf of our Club. The project is a community-based, not-for-profit initiative, which aims to support young people throughout their periods by providing red boxes filled with free period products to local schools. It was was founded in March 2017 by three friends who wanted to give young people in their local area access to sanitary products. After reading about ‘Period Poverty‘ in the news, they were angered at the idea that young women were missing out on their education because they couldn’t afford the products they needed during their period.
They decided to take action and contacted several secondary schools in Portsmouth to ask if a constantly stocked box of menstrual product would be welcomed. The feedback from teachers was that the issue was real and the resource was needed. Recognising that the need was nationwide, they invited individuals from across the country to be a part of this movement and the response was overwhelming.
In Sunderland, Marge regularly supplies Red Box items to one of our secondary schools, which are very well received and help girls struggling with “period poverty” in our own city.
To find out more about this project, go to their website http://redboxproject.org/about/